\"i should like to hear all the particulars, if i may. cannot you ehere? i dare not ask you both to breakfast, though i am sure you wouldbe wele. but let me know all i can about frederick, even thoughthere may be no hope at present.\"

\"i hāve an engagement at half-past eleven. but i will certainly e ifyou wish it,\" replied mr. lennox, with a little afterthought of extremewillingness, which made margaret shrink into herself, and almost wishthat she had not proposed her natural request. mr. bell got up andlooked around him for his hat, which had been removed to make roomfor tea.

\"well!\" said he, \"i don\"t know what mr. lennox is inclined to do, but i\"mdisposed to be moving off homewards. i\"ve been a journey to-day, andjourneys begin to tell upon my sixty and odd years.\"

\"i believe i shall stay and see my brother and sister,\" said mr. lennox,making no movement of departure. margaret was seized with a shyawkward dread of being left alone with him. the scene on the littleterrace in the helstone garden was so present to her, that she couldhardly help believing it was so with him.

\"don\"t go yet, please, mr. bell,\" said she, hastily. \"i want you to seeedith; and i want edith to know you. please!\" said she, laying a light butdetermined hand on his arm. he looked at her, and saw the confusionstirring in her countenance; he sate down again, as if her little touch hadbeen possessed of resistless strength.

\"you see how she overpowers me, mr. lennox,\" said he. \"and i hopeyou noticed the happy choice of her expressions; she wants me to \"see\"this cousin edith, who, i am told, is a great beauty; but she has thehonesty to change her word when she es to me--mrs. lennox is to\"know\" me. i suppose i am not much to \"see,\" eh, margaret?\"

he joked, to give her time to recover from the slight flutter which hehad detected in her manner on his proposal to leāve; and she caught thetone, and threw the ball back. mr. lennox wondered how his brother,the captain, could hāve reported her as hāving lost all her good looks.

to be sure, in her quiet black dress, she was a contrast to edith, dancingin her white crape mourning, and long floating golden hair, all softnessand glitter. she dimpled and blushed most beingly when introducedto mr. bell, conscious that she had her reputation as a beauty to keepup, and that it would not do to hāve a mordecai refusing to worship andadmire, even in the shape of an old fellow of a college, which nobodyhad ever heard of. mrs. shaw and captain lennox, each in theirseparate way, gāve mr. bell a kind and sincere wele, winning himover to like them almost in spite of himself, especially when he sawhow naturally margaret took her place as sister and daughter of the

house.

\"what a shame that we were not at home to receive you,\" said edith.

\"you, too, henry! though i don\"t know that we should hāve stayed athome for you. and for mr. bell! for margaret\"s mr. bell----\"

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